I  love New York City Delis.  The deli or the bodega or the market- whatever you call it.   What it offers, how it displays it, tells you so much about any given neighborhood.  Does it carry just The Post, only the The Times, or the NYC trifecta The Post, The Times, and the retarded step cousin, The Daily News?

I have fine tuned my own rating system based on a number of indicators.  Here's a few:

SODA:  Bottles only?  Or the rarer and slightly nostalgic tin can as well?  The diet selection is of utmost importance to my ranking.  Just the standards- Diet Coke, Pepsi, Sprite won't do.  I have been spoiled.  I expect Diet Orange Creme, Celray, Black Cherry, and the oh so retro TAB of my childhood.

GUM/CANDY: This figures highly into my final score.  Again, major points for the sugar free gum choices, preferably with new, exotic, and limited edition flavors.  Candy is less important, though a Charleston Chew, Skor Bar, or Hostess Snowballs is impressive.

It's gotten to the point where I just may visit a deli to see the selection.  It's like a free museum with the option to eat the art.

  

You learn everything about the block your on, the character of the community, from what's stocked on the shelves and even how it's stocked.  The East Village is so vastly different from the Upper West Side.  Williamsburg, which has seen a major overhaul, from sticky bags of plantain chips and foreign cakes under cloudy plastic pastry covers to organic veggie chips and power bars,  is another world deli-wise from the Upper East Side.    

I think there's an article in this.